154 SYSTEMS OF TREATING STAMMERING
mering should effect its closure. But opening the
glottis is not curing stammering; and if it were, this
end could be obtained by more natural means,
The next measure that we have to consider Is
"syllabic speaking/' a device already a century old,
but one that flourishes despite its antiquity. The
term "syllabic speakingJJ is generic rather than
specific: it implies several modes of utterance in
which the syllabical construction of words is given
unwonted emphasis. In some systems of syllabica-
tion the students dismember their words into syllables
by distinct pauses, and often by regular syllabic inspi-
rations. In other systems the long and short syllables
of words are given approximately equal duration, and
the dividing pauses may or may not be observed.
The various modes of syllabic speaking may be
prescribed merely as forms of practice, or may be
enjoined as antidotal measures to be observed during
conversation. One teacher of stammerers writes as
follows in reference to syllabic reading as an exercise:
"I employ the following means: According to the degree of
the malady and the culture of the stutterer, I select a reading-
exercise from any prose work. The stutterer takes the jxmi-
tion already described, and breathes in deeply and long. Then
he reads the sentences loudly and slowly, syllable by syllable,
At first, the sentences should be short, consisting of lhw? or
four words, as, * Anton loves his brother,* 'John Is a
scholar/ etc. . . .'